Theatre Maker |Director |Writer
Jenna Watt is a multi-award-winning Scottish theatre maker whose work sits at the intersection of contemporary performance, autobiography, and socio-political inquiry. Her practice operates across directing, writing, and collaborative performance-making, with work presented across Scotland and the UK since 2008. Previous works include; Tetra-decathlon, Faslane, How You Gonna Live Your Dash, and Flâneurs.
Working through a combined directing and playwriting practice, Jenna develops immersive and collaborative performance that explores lived experience, place, and power. Her work increasingly engages with ecological and social themes, shaped by an interest in sustainability, rewilding, ecological grief, and ecofeminism. In 2018 she was awarded Magnetic North’s Artist Attachment, and in 2019 she completed an MSc in Sustainable Rural Development alongside her theatre practice.
As a freelance director, Jenna works across scales and contexts, directing new writing by emerging and established writers, as well as work made with young people. Her practice spans large-scale productions, small-scale touring, rehearsed readings, and artist development processes. As a writer, she has been commissioned by both arts and non-arts organisations, and regularly works in dramaturgical and mentoring roles with writers and theatre makers. She is currently an Associate Reader at Playwrights’ Studio Scotland.
Alongside her theatre practice, Jenna has worked in screen and broadcast contexts, including Nukes, Subs and Secrets (dir. Brian Ross) for BBC Scotland with Hopscotch Productions. During lockdown she authored Hindsight, her first work of non-fiction for Birlinn, which was longlisted for the 2022 Highland Book Prize.
Jenna has collaborated with organisations including the National Theatre of Scotland, Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, Traverse Theatre, Magnetic North, Tron Theatre, Cumbernauld Theatre, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, University of Glasgow, Contact Manchester, Unlimited Theatre, Northern Stage, Made in China, Macrobert, Scottish Youth Theatre, Buzzcut, Forest Fringe, National Review of Live Art, Edinburgh Science Festival, and the Arnolfini.